Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition

While I don't appreciate the removal of the direct purchase of the original version, I have to say that the restoration work is more than good. The "lost" content is quite negligible, the interface improvements all welcome and the additions avoidable if you don't appreciate them. Despite the improvements that have occurred with the post-launch updates there are some things that could have been better tweaked like the balancing of some parts of the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion. In addition, the new Legacy of Bhaal mode is more than playfully difficult at times unnerving due to how unbalanced some fights have been. I liked The Black Pits standalone story, new classes and new options. In particular, the possibility of pressing a key to highlight the elements on the screen with which to interact can be useful. It remains a free choice of the player. The game itself is a very pleasant adventure for low-level heroes. The setting and the rules are quite faithful to the reference Dungeons & Dragons version. While not offering an obvious multitude of approaches, the game is much less limiting than others of the same genre, does not explicit many solutions that it is up to the player to discover and is full of small surprises. Knowing the original rules can help you master it sooner. However, it remains a game that can be played even by those who have never played D&D. For me the greatest value is the atmosphere: music, voices, forest explorations, etc. Recommended above all to fans of the D&D setting and to those looking for a CRPG from a period in which the genre was beginning to be codified as it is seen today in the mainstream which, despite being one of the first to modernize itself, can be fascinating today also precisely for the its older components. Not to be underestimated compared to its more famous sequel.

All Beamdog "Enhanced" editions are garbage. You can't even change the resolution. If you happen to have a 4K screen, the mouse cursor will be tiny. New UI art looks like it has been made by an intern.

While it is very much a product of its time and a prototype for its superior sequel, Baldur's Gate still holds up. Generally speaking, the gameplay has aged rather well, especially when compared to more cumbersome RPGs of its era: the combat and inventory systems are surprisingly straightforward and easy to get a hold of. Since you have up to 6 characters with limited AI to manage (or rather babysit) simultaneously, some fights can get a bit chaotic, but as a DnD game there are largely enough options and combat configurations to make battles strategic and interesting: spells, buffs and debuffs, melee and ranged weapons... You have a lot to work with, and it's solid stuff. Overall, BG nails the feeling of liberty and adventure it's going for. The gameplay largely focuses on exploring cities and forests and stumbling upon unexpected quests and hostile encounters. Not a whole lot of time is spent in dungeons, which, frankly, feels fresh - even if a lot of the areas you get to visit feel a bit empty and make for somewhat repetitive gameplay. And while the game is no literary masterpiece, the story and dialogues are definitely solid and do a great job of making you feel like an adventurer sent unto an epic quest. It helps that the graphics still mostly hold up to this day: the prerendered and painted backgrounds not only ooze charm, they also look legitimately good and have aged pretty damn well! While this “Enhanced Edition” lets you play in HD and offers a new expansion and some neat tweaks, it also makes some unnecessary and inauthentic changes: the “modern” cutscenes look like fanarts and are somewhat jarring, the new characters and quests are kind of sweet but rather out-of-place... And for all these changes that no in-game option lets you revert, it feels like a lot of issues are left uncorrected. It's still a decent way to play BG for the first time, and at least purchasing it lets you retrieve the original game, but it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

I've been waiting for years to take the time and play this game entirely, and finally did it last year. A CRPG Masterpiece, for those that are into that kind of stuff. Rating the game and experience, EE was good enough for me, no crashes. I tried the original game (without mods) but it was too clunky. In any case, good memories, I enjoyed a slower pace game at the time, OSTs still put me in that mood, which is great. Playing the second part now, there's so much more content, but the first part was a pure brain candy.

I know it is cool to hate Beamdog, but Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition is a great game in a great package. The annoying bugs are long gone, the game is fast and polished, the UI is great, especially for a 1998 game. I have spent more than 80 hours playing BGEE, and I honestly haven't as much fun with the originals. I am still trying new classes for my main character, new combinations of party members, still learning something about spells and items in the game. When you make that next step and find the game is getting quite a bit easier, there is always a next difficulty level, or you could always come up with cool personal limitations to the gameplay that fit the story and the world. And when you are running out of ideas, there is always the great community full of advices on how to prolong your fun with BG games.